Michael Chertoff

Michael Chertoff (28 November 1953-) was the US Secretary of Homeland Security from 15 February 2005 to 21 January 2009, succeeding Tom Ridge and preceding Janet Napolitano. Chertoff was previously a federal prosecutor, an Assistant US Attorney General, and a US Circuit Judge of the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

Biography
Michael Chertoff was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey on 28 November 1953, and he graduated from Harvard College in 1975. He worked as a law clerk during the late 1970s and worked in private practice from 1980 to 1983, when US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Rudy Giuliani hired him as a prosecutor. He worked on the Mafia and political corruption-related cases, cracking down on the Mafia in the 1986 Mafia Commission Trial. In 1990, President George H.W. Bush appointed him US Attorney for the District of New Jersey. Senator Bill Bradley convinced President Bill Clinton to keep Chertoff, the only US Attorney to not be replaced by the new administration. In 1994, he entered private practice, and he went on to investigate racial profiling in New Jersey before fundraising for George W. Bush in 2000. From 2003 to 2005, he served as a US Circuit Judge, and he served as Secretary of Homeland Security from 2005 to 2009. He supported building a fence on the Mexican border, opposed illegal immigration, advocated advanced screening technologies such as full-body scanners, supported efforts to combat climate change, and supported Democratic Party nominee Hillary Clinton's run for President in the 2016 presidential election.